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What is “the good life”? The answer to this question is one of the oldest philosophical issues. It has been raised from different points of view: What does it mean to live well? How should one live? After all, no one wants to lead a “bad” life.
The question does not have a simple answer. Within philosophy there are many positions that allow us to unravel the complexities of the aspects that could be involved in leading a good life.
moral life
One of the main meanings of the word “good” is related to the moral approval of those around us. We say that someone leads a good life when it is in accordance with the morality of the society in force. This person could be honest, trustworthy, kind, generous, and principled; all these attributes would be linked to the moral concept of a good life.
Socrates and Plato expressed that one had to be a virtuous person above other things such as pleasure, power or wealth. In an extreme way, Socrates explains that it is much better to suffer than to cause suffering. A good person who is tortured to death is more fortunate than a corrupt person who has dishonorably obtained wealth.
In his work The Republic , Plato elaborates on the importance of leading a good or virtuous life. The morally good person enjoys, according to Plato, a kind of inner harmony. While the evil person, no matter how rich and powerful, is at odds with himself and the world. Plato reinforces this argument by saying that virtuous people are rewarded in an afterlife, while wicked people will be punished.
Many religions also talk about leading a good, upright life, away from the bad path and obedient to God’s laws. Within religious thought, the good life is rewarded both on earth and in the afterlife. Depending on the religion, the rewards will be varied and given at different times or by different deities. For example, Christian believers hope to be rewarded in paradise, while Hindus trust in the law of karma.
the life of pleasure
The ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus declared that what makes life worth living is that we can experience pleasure. Pleasure is enjoyable, fun, and available in many areas of life. When pleasure or satisfaction are the purpose of life, then we speak of hedonism. Aristippus of Cyrene, a disciple of Socrates, maintained that pleasure is eligible, must be guided by prudence and dominated. If pleasure is achieved, happiness is also achieved.
Currently, the word “hedonist” has a negative connotation. It is suggested that the person thus qualified is only interested in immediate and “lower” pleasures, such as sex or food. However, within the original definition of hedonism it is possible to also find references to spiritual pleasure and the absence of suffering or pain. In this sense, pleasure is also linked to health and tranquility. Epicurus, for example, explained that the individual should not get lost in sensual pleasure for several reasons:
1.- Excessive indulgence causes health problems and limits the range of pleasure.
2.- Higher pleasures, such as friendship and study, are as important as the pleasures of the flesh.
3.- The good life has to be virtuous.
When someone currently uses the expression of living “the good life”, it usually has a hedonistic connotation. The phrase probably suggests that the individual enjoys recreational pleasures, good food, rest, and company. The kind of this hedonistic conception of the good life is that it emphasizes subjective experiences. A good life in this sense is full of opportunities in which the person enjoys or feels good.
full life
From the point of view of another great Greek thinker, Aristotle, the good life must go hand in hand with full happiness. According to Aristotle, we all want to be happy.
We value many things because they allow us to enjoy small moments of happiness. Money allows us to buy what meets our needs and gives us pleasure. Leisure and recreation time is important to our happiness as individuals, because it allows us to explore our interests. All these means allow us to value happiness as an ultimate goal.
We could say that a full life is full of moments of happiness and pleasure, and absence of suffering. According to Aristotle’s point of view, the full life must follow certain conditions:
1.- Virtue: the person must be morally virtuous.
2.- Health: you must be in good health and have a reasonably long life.
3.- Prosperity: you must have a comfortable economic situation that allows you not to work on something that you would not freely choose to do.
4.- Friendship: you must have good friends that meet the need for social interaction typical of human beings.
5.- Respect: without the need to be vainglorious, the person must enjoy the respect of others, that their achievements and qualities be recognized.
6.- Luck: any life can become unhappy due to a misfortune, so it is necessary for the person to have good luck to be away from all calamity.
7.- Commitment: the good life is one in which the person cultivates and fulfills his commitments as an active member of the society that frames him.
If someone can follow these conditions we can say that his life is full according to Aristotle’s vision.
meaningful life
In this case, a good life implies feeling that as individuals we have contributed something significant to the world; that there is a reason that justifies our own existence, because we provide something of our own of great value. For many people, family well-being makes them feel that they lead lives full of meaning.
Some recent research shows that with the arrival of children, stress levels in parents increase and happiness levels drop. However, these people express feeling that their lives have a greater meaning.
The family is not the only source of meaning for life. There are other activities, such as artistic creation or participation in social issues that also bring meaning to the life of the individual and allow them to enjoy a meaningful life.
the finished life
For Epicurus, death meant nothing to the individual, since while we are alive and enjoying death it is not present, and when death occurs we no longer exist and therefore do not suffer. He further says that the sage should take a stand where life is enjoyed and death is not feared.
The existence of death has always brought problems to the human mind. The knowledge that sooner or later the time to die comes causes much grief. Epicurus’s great contribution is that this fear of death is irrational. He argues that if the arrival of death does not disturb us (because we will no longer exist) there is no point in suffering while waiting for it.
References
Masclans, E. (2017). Pleasure and death in Epicurus. Available at: https://www.lemiaunoir.com/epicuro-placer-muerte/
Mejia, D. (2012). The conception of death in Epicurus. Skye Magazine. Available at: http://www.scielo.org.co/pdf/esupb/v20n45/v20n45a11.pdf
Roldán, A. (2018). Aristotle: virtue and happiness. Philosophy Lecture Series.
